March 8, 2019

on: March 08, 2019

Gospel: Matthew 9:14-15

Then the disciples of John came to him with the question, “How is it, that we and the Pharisees fast on many occasions, but not your disciples?”Jesus answered them, “How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The time will come, when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then, they will fast.

Reflection:“How can you expect wedding guests to mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?”There are religious people who make a great public display of their faith, while at the same time quarreling with family members, bickering with their neighbors, or cheating at business. As Isaiah prophesies, there is no value in fasting or putting on sackcloth and ashes if all this covers a selfish heart. What is the fast that pleases God? It is “breaking the fetters of injustice, and unfastening the thongs of the yoke, setting the oppressed free…”A true fast is“sharing your food with the hungry,” bringing the homeless into your house.Such scriptural references were surely in Jesus’ mind when people asked him why his disciples were not fasting. Jesus and his entourage were a traveling celebration. Where he appeared the sick were healed, sinners were forgiven, and the poor heard the good news. Was this not the fast that was pleasing to God? While Jesus was with them it was not time for the disciples to mourn. That time would come. But in the meantime, he was in no hurry to hasten the day.